Reuters first with Citi private banking move

Reuters broke news on Sept 1 that Citi’s private banking arm is setting up a global business to attract the world’s richest families to its client books.

The story, based on an internal memo, also revealed Citi Private bank’s chief executive for the EMEA region was stepping aside to take charge of the unit and named her replacement. The development is a global story for the group and marks a major step in the bank’s realignment of its wealth management business to focus on the super rich, internationalize its client base away from North America and abandon its traditional U.S. style brokerage model. The competition matched hours later and Dow Jones cited Reuters in their report. Financial News ran the story the following day. Reuters has consistently set the agenda on coverage of Citi’s transformation of its private bank since 2009, having been the only news organization to secure an interview with its global head who is a member of Citigroup’s senior management committee.